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In 1938, when the Hungarians came in [First Vienna Decision][7], the very next week, they expelled us from the village, [saying] that Father was a ‘Bolshevik’. We didn’t even know what that word meant at the time. We’d been really okay in Felsoszeli, till then we’d had no problems with anyone. They wanted to send us back to Subcarpathia, because we didn’t have our Hungarian citizenship arranged. With the coming of winter, they only expelled us to the edge of the village, to Barakony. In December, it was already freezing, my parents were railroaded out into the cold, under the open sky with six children. The Jews in Galanta immediately intervened as well as they could. They sent a car and took us in it to Galanta. That was the first time I ever rode in an automobile. Right away we got a furnished room with beds. The Jewish community arranged these things, I don’t remember concrete people, sadly. They even when so far as to get us a residence permit, but my father had to report to the border police every day. Meanwhile, Hungary re-annexed Subcarpathia. My uncle in Belgium sent money, that’s how we got our citizenship. After this happened, Mother didn’t want to go back to Felsoszeli, so we stayed in Galanta.
Location
Slovakia
Interview
Ruzena Deutschova